typhoon shandana strikes again

back from aruba. great trip. great hotel. doing a lot for the environment, which fits into my green hotel story perfectly. but let’s back up a bit.

so, big east coast snowstorm. mountains of snow. hazardous driving conditions. the air isn’t much better. airlines canceling flights into jfk, laguardia and newark. every airline that is except jet blue, on which i am flying. i ask the hotel manager if she can provide one more night’s accommodation if we get stranded. she graciously extends a comp offer. if you’re ever in aruba, stay at the bucuti resort. you won’t be sorry.

we hedge on whether to cancel and rebook our flight before we head out to the airport but by the time we decide to do just that, the next day’s flights are sold out. get to airport, the flight is on, so we get onboard.

i have talked about my fear of turbulence before. dear friends, i have NEVER experienced such horrid turbulence in my life. the plane shook and rattled, sending people banging against the windows and it felt as if it was going to fall out of the sky. thoughts of death were on my mind, especially when i looked at the frightened faces of the flight attendants. thankfully, my companion and seat-mate held my hand for the scariest parts. between the vigorous pitching and low visibility, i don’t know how the two pilots landed the plane so gracefully. they deserved a huge round of applause, which they received. still, jet blue should have cancelled the flight. there was no need to fly in those conditions.

here’s a pic of what i had to fly into:

all of this because of my reputation. the moral of the story is: don’t fly with me or you’ll get the ride of your life…

picture of the week—week four

off to aruba tomorrow but before i go, here’s this week’s picture of the week.

bora bora. november 2005. i had traveled to tahiti, moorea, bora bora and rangiroa with seven other journalists. the trip occurred during an especially monumental birthday. since my friends hadn’t organized anything in my honor, i accepted the invitation to fly to french polynesia for work. work it was, but at least i celebrated my birthday in paradise.

this was taken from a small island near the bora bora nui hotel. a local fisherman and his family had taken us journalists on a shark-petting excursion earlier in the day and we had become so famished from the fear, that they kindly grilled fish for us on this small outpost. mount otemanu is in the distance. still one of the most beautiful, tranquil places i have ever visited…

picture of the week—week three

ahhh santorini. all of greece is beautiful but there’s just something about santorini. maybe it’s the unique topography, the majestic views of land and sea or the volcanic red sand beaches. whatever it is, it’s been luring lovers for centuries.

this picture was taken from our villa in ia. whitewashed buildings are ubiquitous in greece but on santorini, the blue and pink accents take on a special hue depending on the time of day. shadows dance along the sides of the buildings, captivating onlookers. imagine waking up to that view every morning. i’d have a skip in my step if i was lucky enough to do just that…

picture of the week—week two

this photo was taken in venice the summer after i graduated from syracuse university. i had splurged on a minolta 35mm camera as a reward for graduating with honors, and had purchased 10 rolls of polaroid film for my six-week backpacking sojourn across europe. yes, polaroid once made 35mm film and the quality was oftentimes better than kodak and fuji.

i came across my subject after wandering away from my friend carrie, who was busy inspecting venetian masks at an artisan’s shop. the picture has faded with time but the colors were very rich that day. the blond of his hair contrasted beautifully with the brown of his jacket and the blue of his shirt. i didn’t try to focus, i just ran up to him, took the pic quickly and looked back to see if my clumsy fumbling had awakened him. sleeping beauty slept on…